Jack Hong/Shutterstock Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter This week's closure of one of Taiwan's last three operating reactors was a milestone in the current government's effort to phase out nuclear power by May 2025, but whether this particular energy transition strategy is successful depends on national elections next January. Taiwan's right-wing opposition has railed against the phaseout policies, and the center-left Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may now need to prove it can deploy renewables and new LNG-fired power capacity on schedule and without experiencing power shortages. Some opposition Kuomintang (KMT) politicians have even mooted the idea of deploying small modular reactors (SMRs) if the party regains power, a shift which would make for policy whiplash on the order of Belgium.
